“Our mission is to empower individuals to live healthy, active lifestyles.”

Ed Buckley

Who he is: CEO of Peerfit, a national digital wellness company providing clients with access to fitness classes at studios and gym facilities in their area. Companies including Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente, and United Healthcare use the service to enhance their corporate wellness options for employees and members.

Identifying a problem: Buckley found that companies frequently pay too much for wellness benefits that their employees often don’t use, such as annual gym memberships. “We looked at the workplace wellness industry and saw a really stale industry — an industry that hadn’t innovated in a long time.”

Digital solution: Peerfit creates digital currency, called Peerfit Credits, which companies can buy for their employees or individuals can buy for themselves. Using these credits, clients can attend various fitness classes at participating studios and gyms — and companies only pay for credits their employees use. “The mechanism of how we accomplished this is very similar to an arcade.”

Exponential growth: In the last year, Peerfit has expanded availability from 15 states to 44, nearly a 200 percent growth. “Our network is constantly evolving and it grows every single day.”